Respect MP George Galloway should be suspended from the House of Commons for 18 sitting days, the Standards and Privileges Committee said today.

The committee criticised Mr Galloway’s conduct aimed at “concealing the true source of Iraqi funding” to a charity he set up and failure to co-operate with the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards.

It backed a finding that there was “strong circumstantial evidence” that his Mariam Appeal received cash from the UK’s Oil for Food Programme “with Mr Galloway’s connivance”.

It said the MP had been “complicit in the concealment of the true source of the funds” and had “damaged the reputation of the House”.

And it said he was “clearly irresponsible” in refusing to look into the source of substantial donations to the fund.

Any ban – which requires the backing of MPs – would take effect from October when the Commons returns from its summer recess.

The committee found that Mr Galloway had breached the Code of Conduct by failing to register his interest in the Mariam Appeal, did not declare his interest in it whenever he should, and used his Parliamentary office and staff to support the appeal “to an excessive extent”.

It said it would only have demanded an apology for those failings – saying the MP had “recognised his shortcomings” in those areas.

However, it added: “Mr Galloway’s conduct aimed at concealing the true source of Iraqi funding of the Mariam Appeal, his conduct towards Mr David Blair and others involved in this inquiry, his unwillingness to co-operate fully with the Commissioner, and his calling into question of the Commissioner’s and our own integrity have, in our view, damaged the reputation of the House.

“In accordance with precedent, we recommend that he apologise to the House, and be suspended from its service for a period of 18 actual sitting days.”

Sir Philip began his inquiry in 2003 but was forced to put it on hold while Mr Galloway fought a successful libel action against the Daily Telegraph for suggesting he received money from the Iraqi regime.

He found “powerful” if circumstantial evidence that “a substantial part” of donations to the appeal from its chairman, Jordanian businessman Fawaz Zureikat, “came from moneys derived, via the Oil for Food programme, from the former Iraqi regime”.

“Consequently Mr Galloway’s political activities conducted through the appeal were thus, in part, funded by the regime and Mr Galloway at best turned a blind eye to what was happening and, on balance, was likely to have known and been complicit in what was going on.”